kindness

And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.

The dictionary defines love as an intense feeling of deep affection. But the Bible tells us that love is much more than a feeling, it’s the most important and greatest virtue of all. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.

Love is not rude. No one likes to be around a rude, impolite, ill-mannered or unpleasant person. When we’re the one being rude we may not see it as such a big deal. Oh, but when someone is being rude to us it is a very big deal. The bottom line is we need to treat others, especially our spouse, the way we would like to be treated, with kindness.

Do not let kindness and truth leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

Love is kind and your kindness shows compassion to the people you love. Sometimes we slip into a comfortable state where we take each other for granted, not intentionally, but it happens and we no longer go out of our way to be kind. The Bible tells us over and over that we should be kind to one another. How much more should we intentionally be kind to our loved ones? Let’s choose to go out of our way to show kindness to the people we love.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

No one is perfect and everyone has faults and quirks, but when we show genuine love and patience we overlook the things that frustrate and possibly even annoy us. When we are patient and kind we try our best to focus on the wonderful qualities of the people we love. Just like our heavenly Father is patient with us we should also be patient with those we love.

Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.

Embrace life, be kind, be sympathetic, be loving, be compassionate, be humble. Keep your tongue from speaking foul, obscene or unwholesome words. Don’t lie or say hurtful things to anyone. Instead, speak blessings, be a blessing and you will receive a blessing. A forgiven heart is a changed heart, filled with gratitude and love. Avoid negativity by speaking positivity into your life.

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

Practice acts of kindness and charity not because of who they are but because of who you are, a child of God. Share God’s goodness with those in need. Do what you can as often as you can for as many as you can.

My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

‘Tis the season to be jolly. Even though it’s the most wonderful time of the year everyone is busy, stressed out, in a hurry and not always as polite as they can be. As Christians, let’s try to set an example of how to treat others. Let’s be kind and slow to anger and remember, Jesus is the reason for the season.